*"Music is meant to touch the soul of the listener...
The driving force , is to aspire for the fine harmony between tradition
and modernity that is in sync with sensibilities of a global audience"*
-Niladri Kumar
About Niladri kumar -
Niladri Kumar is a son of pandit Karthick Kumar - A sitar player. Niladri’s influence with western as well indian classical music led him to create more of fusion/lounge/ambient/experimental music. Being terrific sitar shredder (read: playing a scale in super speed and accuracy) He also went ahead to bring certian changes in sitar to make it sound like electrical guitar having distortion tone. Such modifications were done making sitar a electrical instruments by placing pick ups and plugging it to an amplifier, also reducing the strings on the sitar.
This modified sitar was called "Zitar" and is capable to pull on not only the traditional melody driven sitar tone but on top of it they are distortion sounded! It produces distortion sound progressive to what an electric distortion guitar makes (eg: All the songs in Rock on movie are distortion based except "tum oh toh" which is on acoustic guitar). This new tone which is not only melodic driven but packed with power tone (due to distortion) is really refreshing to ears especially to todays generation. He has also worked with legendary like zakir hussain and also with popular bollywood music directors. **He had begin performing from the tender age of 6 and going further ahead got pretigious awards like "Ustad Bismillah Khan YUVA Puraskar", "The Sankriti award", "The jadubhatta award" and "MTV IMMIES for best classical/fusion instrumental award" under his belt!!
Priority - The ablum
Priority album is a complete journey of dreams and imagination which you can have. Niladri composed songs which vary from social diseases to complicated lifestyle one has adapted, from passion to painfrom being a child to being on a death bed, from fictional stories to real historical events. Every imagination and story has been truly justified by the songs. After listening to the "Priority" I got a feeling his album would be packed with such power songs with high tempo rhythm and unreal shredding over zitar however I was wrong. His few songs have been very upbeat, powerful and others have been mellow, sweet and full of bluesy emotions, I was blown away by such kind of completeness he has brought to the album, Covering all sorts of emotions through different instruments. Also, I have noticed not all his songs are revolving around zitar, I mean few songs like has only 10% of portion played with zitar, this shows his vision and alsokeeping his imagination and song above him (as in not faunting his zitar playing all the time).
"priority" is a song one has to watch and listen where he starts with melodic slow scale over fast tempo rhythm played with electronic beat and tabla, as the songs progresses Niladri does his best, insanely shredding on his zitar. The animated video with different animals showing different profiles of a man are shown (like sloth is shown brushing his teeth early morning inferring him as a lazy guy, sharks and foxes having alcohol in pubs inferring them as cunning and powerful people, huge crowd of frogs and bats on train platforms and subways inferring them as working people in cities etc..) All these animals get converted to some thing of sea mammals or sea animals (read: they turn into sages or pure soul) and follow Niladri to the deep sea and revolve around him as he plays zitar adn thus attend some kind of satisfaction, freedom and peace of mind. Amazing Video! Other songs like "Babur comes to India" has a majestic tone and madness which emotes an ugly power one can have and has. With western styled electronic beats and power driven scales, the song is very powerful yet melodic.I could just imagine while the song played how it felt when a majestic Mogul invades a territory with thousands and thousands of soldiers with him, eradicating anything which comes in his way. So powerful and so ugly. I was amazing how Niladri has composed a song and actually brought justice to this imagination. Songs like "Iris Peg" and "Taj Mahal" are so passion driven and loved based songs. Niladri has pulled a beautiful blues kind of scale over Taj Mahal which emotes a true love for someone who is resting beneath the ground and never will return. Instruments like synthesizer giving that long sustained chord (like the pink floyd effect) and sweet flute fillers makes one ponder and fall deep into the song. The powerful distortion tone of the zitar is slided note to note triggering loud yet very melodic tone, this is an amazing creation of fusion and extention of instrumental compostions. "iris peg" is very passion driven song, With Guitar intro, flute, synthesizer with that floyd effect. The song has a mild tempo rythm, the femal evocals with sensual lyrics reminds you of that sense of madness, how your breath holds, how your heart beats faster, how one touch creates that tingingly feeling all over your body. This song ignites you from inside and moment of giving up yourself and being a slave of passion is wonderfully emoted in this song. Niladri puts melodic fillers with zitar is like cherry on the cake - completes the songs beautifully.
"Yearning" is one song which shows the creativity and knowledge he has captured so far. The intro starts on keyboards over japanese scales and then rhythm is favored with dohlak and club beats, you could distinctively hear the DJ scratching (read: used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while manipulating the crossfader on a DJ mixer) Niladri gives a melodic scale and powerpacked scales all over the song and the vocals sung in sankrit! This unusual compositions makes this song really fresh and amazing to the ears.
"Love in September" is yet another passion oriented and driven by exotic scale using Sarangi instrument. I was always a big fan of sarangi and thanks to niladri he has chosen sarangi to play this composition. As the song speaks of passion, it is about heart to heart, skin to skin, soul to soul, losing yourself for someone whom you love, for the passion, for that one touch, for that one hug. There is no world without this, nothing makes more sense kind of feeling in this song!. Niladri has completly focused on Sarangi and pink floyd sustain keyboards effect with very low tempo which makes this song very sensual. **"The Final Journey" song almost made me cry, I could imagine this song being played when you are on your death bed. Using again Sarangi and synthesizer sustain tone, he takes you back to your childhood where you ran around carelessly, how you were hugged and cheered by your friends, how wonderful you felt when you grandpa carresed you with her hand, Your first date, your first kiss, those wonderful moments your mother, father, brother/sisters and your love. All these moments you would remember in your final journey, couldn’t you?
*Dump your radios broadcasting irritating, senseless bollywood songs go to stores and buy some real stuff.
Shanti